British Photographer Shot by Police While Covering LA Protest Outside Home Depot

A British photojournalist ended up in the hospital after taking a sponge bullet to the leg while covering a tense protest outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles County. Nick Stern, who’s based in the U.S., was photographing a standoff between anti-ICE protesters and police in Paramount, California—a spot often used by day laborers to find work—when things took a dangerous turn.

Out of nowhere, a 14mm “sponge bullet” slammed into his thigh.

“My initial concern was, were they firing live rounds?” Stern told the PA news agency. That moment of panic quickly gave way to pain. Protesters rushed over to help him, and he remembers blood “pouring down” his leg as they carried him away from the scene.

Even though the round was technically “non-lethal,” the injury was serious. Stern says he eventually passed out from the pain and had to undergo emergency surgery. He’s now recovering at Long Beach Memorial Medical Centre.

Stern isn’t new to this kind of risk. He’s been in the U.S. since 2007 and says he always tries to make himself “as visible as possible” during dangerous assignments. “That way you’re less likely to get hit because they know you’re media,” he explained.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time he’s been caught in the crossfire while doing his job. During the 2020 George Floyd protests, Stern was also struck—this time by a live round—that left him with what he called “substantial” bruising.

Stern has a deep understanding of the community he was covering. “The communities in LA are very tight and very close-knit,” he said. “So an outside organisation like Ice coming in and removing – whatever you want to call it, removing, kidnapping, abducting people from the community – is not going to go down well at all.”

The protest that landed Stern in the hospital was part of a larger wave of demonstrations sparked by the Trump administration’s immigration policies. Things escalated after former President Donald Trump announced the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to California. The move was meant to clamp down on protests that began downtown and spread across the city.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the decision, saying the deployment was “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States.”

But Democratic leaders weren’t having it. California Governor Gavin Newsom blasted the action as “purposefully inflammatory,” adding fuel to the already heated national debate over immigration enforcement.

Protesters have been out in full force, rallying against immigration raids that aim to detain up to 3,000 people a day.

Still, despite the injury and the trauma, Stern says he’s not done. “I intend, as soon as I am well enough, to get back out there,” he said. “This is too important and it needs documenting.”

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